Spotlight on Obeid family empire in real estate

Linton Besser, Kate McClymont

THE family of ALP heavyweight Eddie Obeid has been involved in tens of millions of dollars worth of real estate developments across Sydney and NSW over the past 20 years, including joint ventures with a major property group, a corruption probe has been told.

Some of the developments, ranging from a shopping centre at Top Ryde to a huge subdivision near Port Macquarie, would have required extensive liaison with government authorities during the period in which Mr Obeid was one of the most powerful figures in the NSW Labor government.

Obeid partner … Rocco Triulcio, who with his brother Rosario, initially paid for the Honda CRV under investigation by ICAC. Photo: Tamara Dean

Yet for the two decades that Mr Obeid was a member of the Legislative Council, the only revenue he declared was his parliamentary income.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption heard yesterday that Mr Obeid's five sons operated distinct parts of the family empire. One son, Paul Obeid, confirmed he was responsible for its property development arm.

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He also admitted the family continued to operate a series of waterfront cafes at Circular Quay and this was the responsibility of his brother Damien.

In May a Herald investigation revealed that, since 2003, the Obeids had deliberately hidden their ownership of these cafes and the fact they controlled the three state government leases from which these businesses operated, and they did so by using another man's name on the paperwork.

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It also revealed that Mr Obeid snr had interfered in the way his caucus colleagues had managed the leases, including efforts to seek a better deal.

The ICAC inquiry is examining the circumstances surrounding the purchase of a Honda CRV - at a $10,000 discount - by the state's former treasurer Eric Roozendaal.

The car was initially paid for by brothers Rocco and Rosario Triulcio - who own and run the Challenge Property Group, the property group with which the Obeids are partnered - before they were reimbursed through an Obeid family account.

The Triulcio brothers were grilled for hours in the witness box on Friday about the 2007 Honda purchase. Counsel assisting the commission, Geoffrey Watson SC, alleged the Triulcios's involvement in the transaction was a ''sham'' to hide a financial benefit the Obeid family had conferred on Mr Roozendaal, who was then the state's roads minister.

Paul Obeid told the inquiry that his brother Moses - the most senior of the five brothers - had told him he had found a buyer for the car. ''He said it was Eric,'' Paul Obeid said.

The inquiry was then told that, during a previous private examination by the ICAC Commissioner David Ipp, QC, Paul Obeid had conceded that Moses Obeid had sold the car to Mr Roozendaal ''to do him a favour''.

The Obeids paid $10,000 towards the new car, the inquiry established, but Mr Roozendaal failed to declare any such gift on his pecuniary interest disclosure.

Rocco Triulcio, who now drives a Ferrari but had previously owned a Mercedes CLS and a 7-series BMW, confirmed to the inquiry that, since he built a kitchen for the Obeids in 1990, the two families had become tight business allies on a series of developments, including those in Elizabeth Bay, Delhi Road at Ryde, Blackwall Point Road at Chiswick and Top Ryde.

Other ventures included a large-scale subdivision at Lake Cathie near Port Macquarie that the Obeids had been pursuing for more than a dozen years, and an Indonesian coalmining project, the inquiry heard.

The inquiry was shown financial records that demonstrated repeated and ongoing transactions between the Triulcio businesses and the Obeids. Earlier this year a court was told by one of the Obeid sons that Mr Obeid snr was a member of the myriad trusts that received the flow of money from the family's businesses.